


In Avenier Forest

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Series: 2019 MCU Kink Bingo [4]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Not Really Character Death, Presumed character death, Robin Hood AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 09:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: There are thieves in Avenier Forest, but Tony is not afraid. After all, what is one man to the amount of guards that Obie forced Tony to take with him?Only there’s something familiar about this thief.





	In Avenier Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the MCU Kink Bingo square G1: character has been presumed dead. 
> 
> This is a very lite Robin Hood AU, but it's definitely where I got the inspiration from. Also if ambiguous/open-endings bother you, then you might not want to read this <3

 

“Are we there yet?”

Tony turns his head so that he can catch Rhodey’s sigh and roll of the eyes.

“Do you want me to pull out the cards again?” Rhodey replies.

Tony waves the offer away and leans his head against the carriage. The carriage wheels bump against a rock, or maybe over a small hole, jarring the entire carriage and Tony’s head. Tony sits back up and shifts in his seat, wishing the seats had a bit more cushion on the wooden boards beneath them.

Well, really Tony wishes he was on horseback instead of in this box of a carriage, but Obie had insisted and Tony had wanted to leave more than he wanted to argue.

Tony only mildly regrets dragging Rhodey into the carriage with him, making both of them miserable. At least Happy was happy, driving the carriage out on top, rather than trudging after Tony and Rhodey on horseback himself.  

“Whoa, there!” Happy shouts.

There’s a jingle of the reigns and the neighing of the horses, and the carriage slows at a quick enough rate that Tony and Rhodey have to catch themselves before they go flying forward off the seat.

“What, what is it?” Tony asks as he lunges for the door, eager to stand up, walk around, and smell fresh air again.

Rhodey yanks him back and peers out first, reaching for his sword.

“Stay here,” Rhodey orders, quiet and serious, as he steps out.

Tony pops his head out of the door. Someone stands in front of the horses, in the middle of the road, barring their way. Tony gives them full points for theatricality, as they stand there in all black with the hood of their cloak covering their face.

“Move or I’ll run you down!” Happy shouts from the top of the carriage.

Tony doubts that Happy would ever be capable of such a thing, but it’s Tony who knows this and not the hooded figure.

Still, they don’t move.

“Move along,” orders one of the Stane’s guards. Obie had forced several to follow Tony and ring his carriage to guarantee safe passage through the forest.

_‘Avenier Forest is full of thieves and bandits,’ Obie had argued._

_‘If you lowered your taxes, maybe it wouldn’t be,’ Tony had argued back._

_‘Tony, Tony,’ Obie had chided. ‘I have orders from the King. What would you have me do? I must support the crown.’_

Tony hadn’t argued then, just like he hadn’t argued about the carriage. At this moment, he doesn’t mind so much that he had given in to Obie’s requests. This one man doesn’t stand much of a chance against the guards surrounding Tony.

“Get back inside,” Rhodey hisses quietly as he unsheathes his sword. He then takes a careful eye to the woods around them, to the trees that creep and threaten to cover the road.

Tony ducks back inside the carriage, but only to retrieve his sword. In a moment he’s out standing by Rhodey.

Rhodey glares at him but doesn’t argue.

Tony takes a step forward, toward the horses and the man who continues to stand in front of them.

“When the theatrical troupe comes by, I’ll send them your way. Excellent dramatics,” Tony calls out, voice raised. He sees the swords drawn out the corner of his eye, and while Tony feels secure in his guard he’d rather see no blood shed at all.

Tony hears Rhodey sigh from behind him.

“Would you care to tell us why you are standing in the middle of the road?” Tony continues.

The man does not answer.

Tony huffs and takes another step forward.

“Are you deaf? Are you mute? Give me something, here, the silence is a little - wait!” Tony ends with a shout as he sees the glint of steel in the man’s hand.

Tony’s order does nothing. One quick movement, and the knife is embedded in the captain of his guard’s throat.

One man, it’s only one man, Tony tells himself, but still everything descends into chaos.

Rhodey yanks Tony back behind him. The guards charge the man on their horses, and even Happy tries to run the man down with the carriage.

The man evades them all, weaving in and out of the chaos with his cloak whipping behind him. He has a sword in one hand and an endless supply of knives in the other, and Tony can only watch as guards get in their own way, their horses screaming, as they try to hack at their opponent.

“Get to the trees,” Rhodey urges, pushing Tony away.

“But I -” Tony protests, trying to step forward, his sword brandished in front of him.

“Now,” Rhodey orders. “ _Go_.”

Tony stumbles back, continuing to watch. His sword is useless in his hand, no opponent to fight. He watches Rhodey leap up and drag Happy to the ground, and there’s a glint of metal where Happy’s head used to be.

Rage sears through Tony and he steps back towards the fight. Then Rhodey shoves Happy away, toward Tony, and Tony grits his teeth as he drags Happy to the trees.

Happy carries a sword with him, had been one of Tony’s teachers, but the sword is still on top of the carriage and besides, a sword is little defense against a flying knife.

“Not a fair fight,” Happy gasps as he stumbles after Tony, deeper into the wood.

“You’d trounce him one-on-one,” Tony assures.

They stay in the trees, and Tony watches, twitching, as Rhodey approaches the cluster of guards around the hooded figure.

If it had just been the three of them, without the guards and the carriage, they would’ve simply outrun the man. The carriage and guards has made them a target, and Tony curses Obie for forcing Tony to take them. Tony curses himself for agreeing to them.

Tony curses as in the blink of an eye, the man disappears.

The black cloak should make the man obvious. The sun has not yet set, and the road and surrounding trees are well lit enough to spot the dark shape the man should be making.

The guards shout in surprise. They continue to circle where they had been fighting, then circle the carriage, to find the attacker. Rhodey is among them, on foot, unharmed and alert.

Then Rhodey spits a curse and yanks the carriage door open. The attacker jumps out, bowling Rhodey over and disappearing in the whirl of dust.

“Thief!” Rhodey shouts as he scrambles up from the ground.

Tony groans. Again, Obie’s fault, in weighing Tony down with gifts. This time it had been mostly clothes, though a few items of jewelry would be easy to take. Tony suspects Obie’s ease in parting with such wealth is because Obie will get every piece back - and much more - when the wedding finally takes place.

Solidifying the ties between the lands of Stark and Stane had been his father Howard’s idea. This marriage had been Howard’s idea, and forcing Tony to visit his betrothed is also Howard’s idea.

Really, this entire mess is Howard’s fault.

Then there’s the cool kiss of metal against his neck, and Tony refocuses.

“You found everything we carry,” Tony says calmly. “I don’t have coin on me.”

A glance to the side, and Tony sees Happy’s slumped figure. Knocked out or killed?

One man. This had only been one man.

Tony’s right fist clenches around his sword.

There’s a tap of metal on his left hand, and Tony tries to leap away. He’s jerked back into a hold, back pressed to the attacker’s front and sword insistent at his throat. Tony grips the sword at his side, but doesn’t move.

The tap comes again, but it’s the flat blade of the knife that taps against Tony, not the cutting edge. The knife tinks against metal, and Tony realizes that the attacker is tapping Tony’s betrothal ring.

Well, it’s not like Tony will be upset to see it gone other than the headache his father and Obie will raise as they go on about it.

Tony reaches for the ring, wondering why the man who mercilessly attacked the guards isn’t slitting Tony’s throat and taking the ring from his dead body. The man’s hold relaxes, letting Tony move, and that’s when Tony strikes.

He slams his heel onto the man’s toes, elbows his attacker in the gut, and forces the sword away from his throat. Tony whirls, bringing his sword up in defense.

The trees make it impossible to swing, the uneven ground difficult to step. It’s less of a sword-match than a shoving fight with blades in hand, and unfortunately Tony is half a head shorter with a matching imbalance of weight. He has to end this quickly or else shout for back-up - or both.

Tony opens his mouth.

The man lunges for him.

Their swords tangle together, Tony slowly losing the fight to keep the blades away from his face.

“Rho -” Tony tries to shout.

A hand muffles the sound, the taste of leather filling Tony’s mouth. The man pushes closer, looming over Tony, their swords caught in between them. The man’s face is visible under his hood, just beyond the blades.

The bottom of the man’s face is covered in black cloth, but Tony knows those blue eyes. He _knows_ those blue eyes.

Tony’s shock drains the strength from his arms. The hand on his mouth moves, catching Tony’s wrist and stopping the swords from slamming back into Tony’s face.

“Bucky?” Tony whispers, forcing the question from his throat.

The man stills at the question, those blue eyes boring into Tony. Those eyes don’t contain the warm, fond looks that Tony is used to. They don’t carry the humor of an inside joke, or the sparkle of joy after a lazy day in the sun. Tony has never seen those blue eyes this frigid.

“Bucky, is it - is it you?”

Tony reaches up with his free hand and tugs down the black cloth covering the bottom half of the man’s face. Bucky stares at him as Tony drinks him in. There’s scruff along his jaw that Bucky used to always shave. There are deep lines at the corners of Bucky’s eyes and mouth, pinched tight. There is no smile, no softening, no greeting that Bucky gives in return.

But those are Bucky’s eyes, Bucky’s cheeks, Bucky’s mouth. This is Bucky, and Tony feels light-headed.

“They, you, they said you died,” Tony stutters. He cups Bucky’s cheek in his hand, marveling at the warmth, at the _life_ in the touch.

Bucky tilts his head ever so slightly into Tony’s touch, and Tony feels tears gather in his eyes.

Bucky opens his mouth, and suddenly all Tony wants is to hear his own name. He needs Bucky to say it, to say Tony’s name, to tell Tony that this is real, Bucky is alive, this isn’t a dream -

“Tony!” Rhodey shouts from somewhere nearby.

Bucky rips back, out of Tony’s hold. Tony stumbles forward, reaching out, but Bucky quickly retreats.

“I did,” Bucky says as he rearranges the black cloth over his mouth again.

There’s one last, long moment where Tony stares at Bucky and Bucky stares back. Then Bucky moves, and he’s melted away in the shadows of the forest.

“Is Happy alive?” Tony asks when Rhodey finds Tony, still standing in the same spot, still staring at the place where Bucky had been.

“Yes. Still knocked out, but otherwise fine. Are you…?”

“I’m fine. He wanted my ring. Didn’t get it,” Tony says, flashing Rhodey his hand.

Rhodey swears and steps closer. “Three of the guards are dead, including the captain, but it’s just injuries otherwise. We should get moving, sound the alarm. You know your father is going to have these forests combed.”

Tony nods and follows Rhodey to the carriage.

Happy is inside, arranged on the floor, with one of the guards now tasked with driving the carriage.

“Get inside,” Rhodey says kindly. “I don’t want those throwing knives coming after that blasted ring.”

Tony sighs but doesn’t argue. Rhodey doesn’t join him this time, mounting the captain’s horse instead.

Bucky is alive, Bucky is alive, Tony thinks as the carriage moves forward as fast as the horses can handle. Bucky is alive, but he didn’t let Tony know. Bucky is alive, but he almost killed Happy. Bucky is alive, but says he died.

Bucky is alive, Tony thinks as a tear falls down his cheek with no one to see, but he doesn’t want Tony. Not anymore.

Tony spins his betrothal ring around and around his finger. He wishes he hadn’t told Rhodey that he still had it. Then Tony could toss the ring out the window.

The lord’s son and a soldier in the King’s army. Tony and Bucky hadn’t stood a chance, not with Howard as Tony’s father. Not unless Bucky came back from the war with status and the King’s favor. Only Bucky hadn’t come back. There had been no body, just Bucky’s name one more line on the list of the deceased.

But Bucky is alive. It’s everything Tony dreamed of, everything he wished for, and yet…

* * *

 

“They’re calling him the Winter Bandit,” Rhodey tells Tony later, after they’d informed Tony’s father of the robbery in Avenier Forest.

Tony snorts. “It’s spring.”

But the Winter Bandit has been attacking merchants, caravans, and carriages - no matter the number of guards, all winter season. It’s said that the Winter Bandit causes a cold shiver to race down your spine, right before he comes. It’s said that the Winter Bandit will freeze you with his cold blue eyes, so cold you won’t even notice as he stabs you. It’s said that the Winter Bandit is as merciless as a blizzard, leaving you dead in his wake.

Bucky, Tony’s heart sings. It’s Bucky. Bucky is alive.

Tony swallows this information and tells no one, too afraid that it was just a dream.

 

**Author's Note:**

> In an ideal world, I'll circle back to this and add more so feel free to subscribe.


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